


Find a Life

by shaneequa



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Gen, fixit, friends - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:48:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23552572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shaneequa/pseuds/shaneequa
Summary: Steve returns the soul stone in Vormir, and nobody read the fine print. (a FixIt! With Natasha coming back from Vormir).
Relationships: Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	Find a Life

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own anything... and I haven't written in about four years. 
> 
> Let me know what you think! Happy reading!

Vormir  
2014

Natasha stirred, her consciousness registering nothing (a phenomenon for Natasha Romanoff, a trained former assassin), immediately followed by a strong ache in her back, as if she had just launched herself off of a mountain top.

“How are you feeling?” Steve’s voice echoed in her ear. Natasha’s eyebrows scurried confused, her eyes shut.

“Like I just jumped off a cliff,” she jested. Stretching out her back a little, keeping her eyes shut. The last thing she remembered was fighting with Clint, and throwing herself off the mountain because there was no other choice. Like she told Loki, there was red in her ledger that she needed to wipe out. 

“I returned the stone,” Steve said gently. Natasha felt the ground next to her shift as he, what she could only assume, knelt next to her. Steve's tone stayed soft and patient. “Red Skull said that it was an everlasting exchange, but to return the stone back to the timeline it was… it reversed the curse. Nobody has ever returned the stone.”

Natasha waited for the catch.

"So just like that?" She questioned, disbelieving. 

"The soul stone could not bring back the person that was sacrificed, if used..but if returned as if it was never taken in the first place...” He paused again. “I guess Red Skull didn’t read the fine print.”

Natasha remained silent. Her mind going a mile a minute trying to piece together the cause and effect. Time was (is? has always been?) a weird concept, now especially when she was part of what Scott decided to call a Time Heist. (Also leave it to Tony Stark to figure out how to accomplish said time heist, but she was not going to give him credit. His ego would skyrocket, if that was possible). She jumped off a cliff because there was no way in hell she was going to let Clint win. Clint should have obtained the soul stone, as planned, and... just as planned, Steve came back to return the stones to the time line to not disturb it.

She felt his gloved hand on her cheek. “Open your eyes, Nat.”

Trust issues. Because maybe the plan didn't work, maybe the universe just wanted to continue its course to mess with her. She shut them harder. This could not be happening, this was death. She was dead, and whatever was going on, was not. But, Steve was here, did that mean that Thanos... did everyone come back?

“Did you get him? Thanos?”

Steve sighed, his thumb caressing her face. “Yeah… but Tony…”

Her brows furrowed again. “Tony?”

“He uh, he took the stones, it was too powerful for him. Bruce is still in a sling from when he used the stones and brought everyone back,” Steve explained. He sighed cupping her jaw. “Natasha, I would say that we have all the time in the world, but I need you to open your eyes. On my honor, this is real.”

She blinked her eyes open, slowly. Her vision was a blur, but she could see Steve; the man who embodied the good, her ally, her friend.

“And I’m…?”

“It’s like time never passed. The way it was explained, is that this is your future. You’re back, 2014, Vormir. I don't know how Thanos will come get the stone or what Stark did to him after the battle..."

Steve paused. Of course Natasha would want a play by play. He took a breath and gave her the short version, she would learn soon enough when she came back to the timeline he left that Thanos traveled to the future in order to undo their undo. He shook his head, when did the world get so complicated?

Natasha took it all in. "And Stark? You said...?"

“When Stark used the stones to snap them… well, I’m not really sure what he told the stones he wanted. Just that they all disappeared. Thanos, everyone. He's a hell of a man, I'm sure he figured out how to make everything back the way it was.”

“You know, I’m going to need something strong to try and figure that one out, this time thing is confusing.”

“Sure is,” Steve chuckled.

“Well now that you’ve righted this wrong, now that you’ve saved the world again, what are you planning to do? How many stones do you have left to return?”

“One, but I, I uh, I’ve been saving it.”

“Peggy?” she asked. 

“Taking it from New York in 2012 didn't work for Stark and I. Bruce got the time stone, but... well we had to go back. When Stark and I took it, I saw her. I saw her in her office and I all I wanted to do was to watch her. See the woman who she became, but still the same one I knew. _My_ Peggy.”

Natasha smirked at him as she got up, once again stretching her back trying to shake off the pain. She’s been through worse, hell, she’s been dead. “What are you too chicken?”

Steve shook his head. “No, I’ve decided… Well, I think I should stay. Stay back there, get my dance.”

“Wouldn’t that—“

“Change the past? I could get Zola out of SHIELD, make sure Hydra doesn’t…”

“Steve, you have to be careful," Natasha interrupted. She may not be a genius, but she knew that time was not something to be messed with. The series of events that could unfold with just one undoing could make or break everything. 

“I know. I know that altering the past has consequences, but Nat. I’m tired, all I’ve ever wanted was to fight in the war next to my best friend, and dance with the woman I love.”

“The world does not give you opportunities to get everything that you want and… I get it... You know I’m going to miss you in the future," she smiled at him. Through the past few years, Steve has been her rock. The five years after the snap, and after the Avengers split up, there were times when she thought of how easy it would be to go rogue again. To be the lone wolf instead of co-existing in a tiny apartment with people who weighed their actions against their morals. But then Steve, and Wanda, and Sam. Everyone who kept her together and gave her what she could only define as a family.

He smiled. “I’ll be back before you can even miss me.”

Steve handed her a PymParticle and a piece of paper with the directions of how to get back to the timeline, the one he left when to bring the stones back. The one without Stark, and without Thanos. Natasha took the paper and the She pushed the particle and hovered on the button. “Hey Rogers.”

“Yeah Romanoff?”

“Thanks,” she smiled.

He gave her one last salute before they simultaneously engaged the Pym Particle to send them off. They entered the particles together then split up in the tunnel.

Avengers "Tower"  
Present Day

Natasha appeared in the middle of the woods by a familiar lake. There were still rubble and signs of a war around what used to be the Avengers Tower. She looked around recognizing the area, taking the scenery back in of the place she called home.

By the edge of the lake, She could see Bruce and Sam talking, joking around. Bucky beside them observant, looking at the place that looked much like the time machine. She assumed that's where Steve disappeared moments before.

She saw a familiar figure appear. Steve, as an old man, a gold ring on his finger, sitting at the edge of the lake. She stood in her spot as she watched Steve give Sam Captain America’s shield. Sam looked at him in awe.

She sure was going to miss those bastards. Natasha looked around her, then at the scene across the lake one last time before walking off into the woods.

It was time she took Steve’s advice and found a life.


End file.
